After ISIS, Americans Fear Cyberattacks Most (theatlantic.com) 97
An anonymous reader writes: According to Pew Research Center, there's an increasingly growing fear among Americans about cyberattacks. In fact, it's the second most feared entity to them, the first being ISIS. The terrorist group is scary by design, relying on propaganda videos and ultra-violent attacks to spread fear and project power. But coming in second right after the terrorist group was the prospect of country-on-country cyberwar: a digital raid to steal another government's information, for example, or a large-scale attack on a nation's electrical grid. Cyberattacks are a major threat in the minds of 72 percent of Americans, and a minor threat to another 22 percent. Cyberwar hasn't been on Americans' minds to this degree since 2013. That year, for the first time, Americans ranked cyberattacks as a top threat, placing it second after the threat from Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda. But in the intervening years, Americans turned their attention to nuclear threats.
Who are these people they are talking with? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I can't wait for the War On Chicken Sandwiches
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I can't wait for the War On Chicken Sandwiches.
When chicken sandwiches are outlawed, only outlaws will have chicken sandwiches.
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I can't wait for the War On Chicken Sandwiches
Close enough? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
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that must be why the f-35 is getting such rave reviews.
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Come on. Take the F-22. This is 13 (thirTEEN) more Fs than that.
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fffffffffffffuck
Re:Who are these people they are talking with? (Score:5, Informative)
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I am reminded of the War of the Worlds broadcast that apparently even caused suicides. Back then you didn't have Internet or anywhere to cross-reference information so people believed whatever was on the radio.
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I'm curious where the U.S. government rated on the list of things most feared.
If it wasn't on the list at all, then I have to call the list bogus.
Liberals fear it to be taken over by the military.
Conservatives fear it to be taken over by socialists.
Those from out side the United States fear it because it's The U.S. government.
The one thing we all have in common is that we fear the U.S. government.
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At least 'cyber attacks' are(in their mild form) actually pretty plausible, since low-level account hackery and financially motivated crime happen more or less continually; but people seem to have a bizarre fixation on mediagenic risks that are absurdly tiny compared to the one
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Google Chrome is freaking me out right now (Score:3)
Here's my biggest anxiety. Its kinda overwhelming because it constantly is reminding me of it self.
I just switched to google chrome from safari and firefox after those two kept giving me the spinning wheel of eternal delay. But now all of a sudden everything I google is showing up as a freaking ad. the exact parts for my bike every where I go. I feel like I'm being followed. I try logging out of my google account but no matter. And when I log into my computer at work-- a totally separate machine-- w
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Firefox has added support for suggestions one or two versions ago. It might work with duckduckgo and perhaps you need to focus on the search bar which is Ctrl-K. I'm not too interested in trying. You can do google searches with "bang commands" although I will likely follow on the advice and try startpage searches.
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I personally know no one that fears either of those things they list was this a multiple choice poll and was spiders a choice? I think spiders would rank fairly high also.
I'm guessing they didn't poll any of my neighbors this week otherwise the answer might have been some thing like the very real and close threat of tornadoes and other life threatening and property damaging severe weather.
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People who watch the news believe ISIS is one of the most important issues in the world, even though it will never affect them.
I will say it is important to distinguish between important and fear-worthy. I am vastly more afraid of Donald Trump than I am of ISIS. However both are important world issues, yet only one can legitimately have a significant impact on my life - and it isn't ISIS. Although they have very different ideologies, I would put ISIS and North Korea on roughly equal footing in terms of important world issues. Similarly neither has much of any ability to directly impact my life.
That said if each candidate f
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We enabled and exacerbated the problem, but what created the problem is the extremist ideology itself, Wahhabism and Salafism. We were a catalyst, but if not for us, it likely it would have found another outlet eventually.
An outlet, likely. The same one, and to the same extent, I'm not sure. For example, Afghanistan was already an extremist shithole before we invaded it. I distinctly remember reading about The Taliban destroying two giant stone Buddhas [wikipedia.org] in 2001 several months before 9/11. I think the big question is whether or not the extremism of ISIS would have come up in the middle east had we never invaded Iraq. Certainly we stoked the embers of anger when we did that.
People like to beleive Islam was always peaceful up until the last 20 years, and except during the Crusades, but there have always been wars, conquests and infighting in it's history.
There is no religion you cannot say that about.
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Well, *someone* has to be voting for Trump...
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Better at least, a fake war to keep the masses in fear and in line than a real war.
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ISIS is not just staying put in the Levant region, they're already spreading to parts of Africa and elsewhere, and eve
ISIS is really not that scary (Score:2)
They're afraid of the wrong things... (Score:5, Insightful)
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This is part of the reason why you don't put bumper stickers on you car.
Also https://politics.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
Make America Great Again (Score:2)
Let's get back to the 50's and 60's when alien abduction and the dreaded anal probe were the things to fear. That an nuclear annihilation and communist dominos.
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Why don't Americans fear their own government most?
Because they've had 13-17 years or so of public indoctrination.
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The difference is maybe that all ISIS can essentially do is bomb something. There is no other way they could possibly have any negative effect on you. The likelihood of this happening is insignificant. To give you an idea just HOW unlikely it is, you're more likely to appear in one of those "10 funniest ways to die" videos that litter YouTube. There is absolutely nothing else ISIS can do to fuck up your life.
Your government, on the other hand, has a lot of options to just do that. The question is now whethe
ISIS? Please! (Score:1)
To the average American the cops are far more dangerous.
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Yup. Wendy's way more dangerous than Muhammad.
International fears (Score:2)
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the IRS, NSA, and Hillary/Trump are not valid values.
They could be if you're traveling abroad.
Their deepest fears revealed (Score:2)
Not me (Score:2, Insightful)
What I fear most is Hillary somehow reaching the White House.
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The only thing I fear more than that is Trump reaching the White House.
Looks like I vote third party again, but I think that was already a given for me.
I Fear My Government More (Score:2)
Isis? Really? (Score:1)
And this goes to show you that Americans are afraid of crap they see on CNN and Fox News.
You are significantly more likely to get killed going to your mailbox than you are to get killed by any form of terrorism.
If you were really afraid of cyberterrorism, you'd be more cautious about what links you open.
What about trans people? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention. I thought weirdos using the wrong bathroom what what I was supposed to be scared of this week.
Seriously though... Terrorists? That's what keeps you up at night? I'm more worried about the idiot driving next to me on his cell phone, or the list of 2000 other things that are more likely to personally affect my life. #2000 is something like "I wonder how nasty it is going to be behind my stove when I have to replace it." #2001 is probably "I need a new stove." Terrorism isn't even a blip on the radar. Maybe I'm naive, but I've got other shit to worry about right now.
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Americans have absolutely zero clue about real threats. None. They panic over ISIS while they grow obese and die from heart disease (which kills a million Americans a year). Just about anything you can name is more likely to kill you than a terrorist, including being hit in the face by a meteor.
Hey ISIS! You want to kill Americans? Come over here and open a restaurant that serves deep fried lard dipped in butter served with a bucket of sugar. They'll be singing your praises about your delicious junk food wh
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Or maybe you just aren't a coward?
I can spot a coward easily enough; anyone who is afraid of death, terrorism, people who are different than themselves... cowards each and every one. They roll in their fears like a hound in feces, and cover themselves with their own stink.
"The brave only die once; the coward dies every day"
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pocketbook (Score:2)
I'll bet Americans fear losing their jobs a lot more than ISIS or cyberattacks. Second, they probably fear having a family member get sick and having to pay 40% of their annual salary to a health care system that has sucked ever since health insurance companies were de-regulated decades ago.
Fear is relative. An economy built on wage slavery needs to keep people afraid.
My benchmark for risk... (Score:2)
...is automobiles.
~100 Americans die in auto accidents every day.
(I think recent numbers are closer to 90.)
Any time I hear about some new thing that I'm supposed to be afraid of, I ask, Is it killing 100 American a day, *every* *day*?
And if it isn't, then I get in my car, and I *fasten my seat belt*, and I don't worry about it too much.
The first enemy in life (Score:1)
Americans are afraid of ISIS? (Score:2)
This terror bullshit is getting way out of hand. By likelihood of death, they should be deathly afraid of Wendy's and Jack in the Box rather. Or their general practitioner.
My doom (Score:2)
I expect I'll probably get killed by some old woman driving into me while texting with one hand, applying makeup with the other, and eating a Big Mac with her foot. That's my biggest fear. ISIS ranks somewhere below getting eaten by a shark - in Missouri.
Translation: (Score:1)
"You can blow my brains out, just don't take away my TwitterBook!"
Sean Penn AND Alec Baldwin? (Score:2)
But in the intervening years, Americans turned their attention to nuclear threats.
"Don't forget about me!! I'm...so...ronery..."
By a pure coincidence (Score:2)
By a pure coincidence there is a 100% correlation between threats that are the most covered in mass media and fear.
It's like journalists always know perfectly well what exactly the public fears the most.
I am sure it just "isn't that easy" but.... (Score:2)
Get a grip! (Score:1)
A better headline (Score:2)
The correct headline should be "America Fears!"
Because we haven't been brave or willing to sacrifice for a long time now.
Sure, I am fearful of the SYMPTOMS... (Score:1)
Dominant minority (Score:1)
Expel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] from your country